Munmu Underwater Tomb

Two hundred metres off Bonggil beach is Daewangam, a low ring of rock barely clearing the water, with a natural pool in the middle and a flat stone slab in the pool. Records say King Munmu, who completed the unification of the peninsula under Silla and died in 681, asked to be cremated and his remains placed in the East Sea so that he might become a dragon and guard the coast against raiding - and this islet has been identified with that request since at least the Joseon period. Whether ashes were ever interred here has never been demonstrated; surveys in the 1960s and later found the pool and the slab but no confirmed burial, and archaeologists differ on whether it is a tomb or a memorial site. Either way it is the only royal tomb of its kind, and the setting - a rock in open sea, viewed from a plain beach - is stark. You cannot land on it. The related Gameunsa site is a couple of kilometres inland.

Highlights

• Daewangam - the rock ring in the sea off the beach.
• The pool and slab - visible in calm water from the shore.
• The open beach - Bonggil, plain and exposed.
• The sunrise - the standard reason people time a visit.

When to go

April to June and September to November; sunrise is the classic hour. In rough weather the rock is obscured by spray and there is nothing to see.

Good to know

It is a distant rock viewed from a beach - no access, no site, no facilities beyond a car park. The burial itself is tradition, not established fact. Fifteen minutes of looking.

Nearby

Gameunsa temple site is two kilometres inland; Gyeongju is 30 km west.